Skytop ready to take off as new adventure course opens

Friday

Oct 7, 2011 at 12:01 AMOct 7, 2011 at 8:36 AM

The Adventure Center at Skytop Lodge already features activities like skiing, paintball and wilderness adventures. The center will open its treetop adventure attraction to the public Saturday, debuting three different courses that will tour through part of the wilderness around Skytop from as high as 50 feet in the air.

MICHAEL SADOWSKI

The Adventure Center at Skytop Lodge already features activities like skiing, paintball and wilderness adventures.

Its treetop adventure course is the next step to grow business.

The center will open its treetop adventure attraction to the public Saturday, debuting three different courses that will tour through part of the wilderness around Skytop from as high as 50 feet in the air.

The three courses total 3,000 feet of track, all firmly suspended from tree to tree to provide a rush while keeping you safe.

"They say the tree would come up out of the ground before the safety wire would break," adventure center Director Ron England said. "And it would take a lot to get a tree out of the ground."

The course also contains a 500-foot-long zipline, England said.

Skytop's course is the second treetop adventure course in Monroe County. Camelback Mountain Adventures started the first one in 2010.

The resort's adventure center — which is open to the public — also contains a rock climbing wall, downhill skiing, mountain biking and wilderness skills activities.

Last month, it opened its fifth paintball course, an Old West-themed shoot-out gallery called "Deadwood."

The treetop adventure course is located near the top of the ski mountain. Participants will be driven there by a military-like transport vehicle, according to Rob Baldasseri, Skytop Lodge's director of sales and marketing.

After receiving the necessary permits, the course took about five weeks to build. This week, England and some experienced treetop course workers are training the nine employees hired to staff the course.

They're called the "rescue team" — but that's a misnomer, England said. They're more like helpers.

"Rescue sounds like the people are dangling there," he said. "That won't be the case."

The construction team that built the course informed England that there will be six to 10 instances a day where someone will freeze up and not want to go any further on the course.

That's where the rescue team comes in.

"It's a very athletic and energetic staff," England said. "They're all involved in some type of extreme sport."

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.